Notre Dame tries to stay positive after loss

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly talks to Robby Toma during the first half of the BCS National Championship college football game against Alabama Monday, Jan. 7, 2013, in Miami. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
— AP

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly talks to Robby Toma during the first half of the BCS National Championship college football game against Alabama Monday, Jan. 7, 2013, in Miami. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
/ AP

In the aftermath of the Irish’s 42-14 drubbing at the hands of Alabama in Monday night’s BCS National Championship, Notre Dame leaves Miami humbled and bruised.

But not broken.

Central to the message Brian Kelly conveyed to his troops after the game was this: This isn’t the end. It’s just the beginning.

“We’ve got another step that we have to take in the development of our program, and it’ll be left up to those who have been led by these seniors,” Kelly said. “That’ll be the challenge moving forward.”

Among others, the Irish will lose Mackey Award-winning tight end Tyler Eifert, Heisman finalist linebacker Manti Te’o, and electrifying safety Zeke Motta – who finished his Notre Dame career with a personal-best 16 tackles against Alabama.

But they’ll return a solid nucleus of skill players in 2012.

And these returners, guys like redshirt quarterback Everett Golson, receivers T.J. Jones and DaVaris Daniels, and defensive end Stephon Tuitt, will bring something invaluable to the table when Notre Dame next takes the field again.

“The best thing about this experience is it creates fire,” said Te’o. “It creates fuel for both the guys staying here, and the guys leaving. And everybody here, everybody here tonight will be better because of it.”

As Kelly emphasized, despite Alabama’s wide margin of victory, there are positives to be gleaned from the game.

Down early and forced to take to the air, Golson made strides as a passer, finishing 21 of 36 for 270 yards. His one interception proved costly – as Alabama methodically marched 97 yards the other way and scored off Golson’s mistake. But he also made up for it with a touchdown to Theo Riddick at the end.

The 115 receiving yards from Daniels, and 90 from Jones, went vastly unnoticed amidst the carnage of the evening, and even though the defense didn’t play as well as it has for most of the season, nose guard Louis Nix managed to at least slow down Alabama back Eddie Lacy on several series’ midway through.

Kelly said he was proud of the way Golson had led the team to the very end, and prouder still of the fact that his team never quit on him.

The silver lining in the defeat to Alabama is that the Irish got a first-hand look at what it takes to be a multiple-championship winning football team.

“It sets a bar for your entire program,” Kelly said. “We all now know what we have to do to move from where we are – which is a 12-0 football team, pretty darned good football team, but not good enough.

“So it’s clear what we need to do in the offseason, it’s clear what we need to do in player development, it’s clear what we need to do to continue to coach better and recruit.”

So what’s the next step for a team that finished undefeated but imploded under duress against college football’s marquee program?

“We’ve got to get physically stronger, continue to close the gap there,” Kelly said.

But more importantly, defeat brought a glimpse of what victory could look like on college football’s biggest stage.

“It’s disappointing we lost the football game. But it’s going to make my job very easy when it comes to talking to players about how you win a National Championship,” Kelly said.

For Golson and all the returning players, the experience itself was invaluable.

“You can’t duplicate it if you’re sitting home or playing in a bowl game,” Kelly said. “When you’re playing for a National Championship, that stuff doesn’t leave you.”